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datguy86 wrote:Smokescreen's luck/skill is firmly in Gary Stu territory, though.

I think the main problem here isn't that Smokescreen is being written better than everyone, but that he's the ONLY one of the Autobots they're actually bothering to right competently at all. Everyone else is so dull and uninteresting that it makes Smokescreen seem so special, when really he's exactly the kind of character this show has desperately needed for a long time. Wouldn't it be so much better if all of the Autobots were being written with that same level of cunning and ingenuity? They're all stick-in-the-muds with their standard procedures, while Smokescreen is the only one providing any real creativity on the team. It's not that he needs to step down from his awesomeness, it's that the others need to step up their game to being as well written a character as he is. As they are, they're just boring.

datguy86 wrote:That's the thing - he'd finished the business and pleasure would have been easy. Take a look at "Inside Job". If Arcee hadn't had her hand on the lever Starscream would have stabbed them all at super speed. Kind of like a drive-by knifing at ridiculous speed.

Thing is, it's because she had her hand on the lever that he had no time to stab them. He had quite a load to carry that was slowing him down, so he was pressed for time because Arcee had begun pulling back the lever.

datguy86 wrote:There are times he's not reprimanded enough by other Autobots. And by that I mean flat out yelled at for being stupid. Arcee would the exception, seeing how she is falling into the Team Mom role. However, Team Prime is a family and Smokescreen is an outsider, so I'm not sure where Cybertronian values dictate which lines can and cannot be crossed by a non-superior officer.

I kinda fine this funny since this is the first I've heard of anyone here approving of Arcee's berating him, whereas others on this board are starting to hate her for it.

Sabrblade wrote:

datguy86 wrote:Smokescreen's luck/skill is firmly in Gary Stu territory, though.

I think the main problem here isn't that Smokescreen is being written better than everyone, but that he's the ONLY one of the Autobots they're actually bothering to right competently at all. Everyone else is so dull and uninteresting that it makes Smokescreen seem so special, when really he's exactly the kind of character this show has desperately needed for a long time. Wouldn't it be so much better if all of the Autobots were being written with that same level of cunning and ingenuity? They're all stick-in-the-muds with their standard procedures, while Smokescreen is the only one providing any real creativity on the team. It's not that he needs to step down from his awesomeness, it's that the others need to step up their game to being as well written a character as he is. As they are, they're just boring.

My complaint is that until Smokescreen came along, the Autobots were plenty resourceful. Bulkhead brought down the Decepticon ship and OP immediately followed up with the decision to use the Spark Extractor. After his stint as Orion Pax, Megatron is on his knees before Prime and Prime is about to murder him to end the war. Bumblebee is already Smokescreen without the voice - his victories over Skyquake and Starscream come to mind in matters of skill and ingenuity. You're right that Smokescreen's the only character being written about, but it's at the competency of the existing characters.

Sabrblade wrote:

datguy86 wrote:That's the thing - he'd finished the business and pleasure would have been easy. Take a look at "Inside Job". If Arcee hadn't had her hand on the lever Starscream would have stabbed them all at super speed. Kind of like a drive-by knifing at ridiculous speed.

Thing is, it's because she had her hand on the lever that he had no time to stab them. He had quite a load to carry that was slowing him down, so he was pressed for time because Arcee had begun pulling back the lever.

Yes. That was my whole point with "Inside Job". Arcee's hand is pushing down the lever. Time's still moving so even without the keys I'd doubt he would have enough time to kill all three and leave. However, judging by his willingness to do so while the Autobots are incapacitated; why didn't Starscream kill Smokescreen when he stole the key from him earlier? He had the time. The only thing I can think of is because he wanted to overhear any conversation about the relic, but that could have been accomplished when the Autobots came to pick up the body. In this case the writers are deliberately writing Smokescreen as untouchable.

Sabrblade wrote:

datguy86 wrote:There are times he's not reprimanded enough by other Autobots. And by that I mean flat out yelled at for being stupid. Arcee would the exception, seeing how she is falling into the Team Mom role. However, Team Prime is a family and Smokescreen is an outsider, so I'm not sure where Cybertronian values dictate which lines can and cannot be crossed by a non-superior officer.

I kinda fine this funny since this is the first I've heard of anyone here approving of Arcee's berating him, whereas others on this board are starting to hate her for it.

Actually, I like Arcee better as the embittered warrior. Team Mom seems more Ratchet's role. But yeah, someone needs to yell at Smokescreen. Optimus disappointed me when he told Arcee to lay off Smokescreen.

Also, since Smokescreen has arrived, have you noticed the time with the kids is lessened considerably? Raf is understandably out of the picture due to his relocation, Miko has all but disappeared, and Smokescreen literally sent off Jack. A lot of character development went into Jack at the end of last season and the beginning of this season and now it's vanishing. While less humans are typically a better thing for Transformer series in general, there's a lot of consistency lost since Smokescreen showed up.

Wow. I have not typed this much about a show or game without reviewing it in years.

datguy86 wrote:You're right that Smokescreen's the only character being written about, but it's at the competency of the existing characters.

Exactly. It's like the writers simply ran out of ideas for all the characters and are pouring all their efforts onto Smokescreen. Why can't they write everyone at the same level as him instead of making them look bad by comparison?

datguy86 wrote:In this case the writers are deliberately writing Smokescreen as untouchable.

Well, if he wanted to leave Smokescreen alive so he could overhear the discussion of the Omega Keys, then it could have been any Autobot he knocked out. It just happened to be Smokescreen who got to the key first. Had Smoke stayed behind to fight Dreadwing while Bulkhead went for the key, then Bulk would have been the one Scream knocked out and left alive.

datguy86 wrote:Actually, I like Arcee better as the embittered warrior. Team Mom seems more Ratchet's role. But yeah, someone needs to yell at Smokescreen. Optimus disappointed me when he told Arcee to lay off Smokescreen.

Thank you. Can you please speak up about this in the Official TF: Prime Discussion Thread? People there are wanting Arcee to die because they don't like her berating him.

datguy86 wrote:Also, since Smokescreen has arrived, have you noticed the time with the kids is lessened considerably? Raf is understandably out of the picture due to his relocation, Miko has all but disappeared, and Smokescreen literally sent off Jack. A lot of character development went into Jack at the end of last season and the beginning of this season and now it's vanishing. While less humans are typically a better thing for Transformer series in general, there's a lot of consistency lost since Smokescreen showed up.

with Raf, it's understandable like you said. Though, I think that back when these episodes were being made, they were looking for a new voice for Raf since it was stated at NYCC 2011 (last year) that they needed to recast Raf since Andy Pessoa was hitting puberty. Thus far, all episodes of season 2 have had Raf still voiced by him, so these Raf-less episodes were probably made during the time of Raf's recasting.

Miko gone for now =

As for Jack, yeah, he did have a lot of developemtn put into him, but he didn't really do much after the Orion Pax episodes. Okay, he went to New York to help get the Phase Shifter, but that's it. His story was pretty much complete before Smokescreen came, so he's gotten to the point that he needs to be at.

Though, I'm sure all three will be back since an interview Ryan and Jon had with Josh Keaton and Tania Gunadi had the two mention that they were both already recording for season 3.

datguy86 wrote:Wow. I have not typed this much about a show or game without reviewing it in years.

Fun, ain't it?

I think they are trying to build Smokescreen's profile up so we...the audience gets attached to him...and we will feel the impact when they kill him off. Just my theory